Rock Songs Index [Hardcover]

Bruce Pollock (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Rock Song Index is not intended to record information about every rock song ever written. No, Bruce Pollock's purpose here is to edit that unwieldy number down to the worthiest works, for a book you can use and peruse without straining your muscles or your eyes. It's a wonderfully useful list, especially for those who can never remember who sang "Along Comes Mary" or when Hank Williams did "Your Cheatin' Heart." The book is organized alphabetically by singer (with notable songs, albums, recorded labels, and songwriters), and in the back is the cross-reference that makes the volume work: there are listings by song title with the artist and year for each. The Rock Song Index is a masterful production for the rock generation as their ages wax and their memories wane.

From Library Journal

In his introduction, Pollock, editor of Gale's ongoing "Popular Music" series, writes, "Ultimately, the purpose of this book is to celebrate the lowly and often forgotten linchpin around which the whole ball of wax revolves, the song." Unfortunately, in his attempt to construct on paper one man's version of the greatest rock'n'roll jukebox, awkwardness ensues: You will look in the alphabetized artist section in vain for some performer's most identifiable hits and not find them, since the rule is that the song always gets listed under the artist who recorded it first. Hence, the Byrds' Turn, Turn, Turn gets listed under Pete Seeger, with an annotation as to who subsequently recorded it. The indexing to overcome this problem is fairly good, but mistakes do pop up: "Walk On By," attributed to both Leroy Van Dyke and Dionne Warwick, should be listed as two different songs that happen to share the same title. The artist entries provide song, year, album, record label, songwriters, and succinct and many times excellent comments by Pollock. While these make for fun reading, they will also provoke disagreement and confusion (e.g., rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson has one bizarre song entry because she recorded it first, but her classic rock raver, "Let's Have a Party," is not mentioned). Pollock has obviously given thought to what he wanted to accomplish and the criteria needed to achieve it, and the result is a work with lots of entertainment value but questionable reference use. For large popular music collections.?David M. Turkalo, Suffolk Univ. Law Sch. Lib., Boston
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 524 pages
• Publisher: Schirmer Reference (February 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028720687
• ISBN-13: 978-0028720685
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,644,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After winning the Dejur award for fiction at CCNY(later won by Walter Mosley) and the Deems Taylor award for journalism from ASCAP, my review of Bruce Springsteen's second album is published in the Sunday New York Times, launching a freelance career in which I publish an article a week in one publication or another for something like 13 years. During the same time, I produce eight books, including three young adult novels for Houghton Mifflin. "An animated funny book," hails The Horn Book about the first. "Ray is a winning narrator," says Kirkus about the second. "Wry, funny, knowledgeable and shrewd," says School Library Journal about the third.
Aside from The Disco Handbook, my best seller is The Face of Rock & Roll: Images of a Generation (Holt), which was even hailed in Creem Magazine. This was followed by When Rock Was Young ("A fine work of impressionistic nostalgia," The Baltimore Sun) and When the Music Mattered ("Notable and worthwhile, insightful and evocative," Publishers Weekly).
After creating the first music video column in USA Today, I help start GUITAR For the Practicing Musician, which will become the most successful music magazine launched in the 80s, and edit the first 100 issues. During this period Hipper Than Our Kids is published by Schirmer. "One of the best books about the boomers and their generation," said Greg Shaw.
After jumping to another dream job as a record producer at BMG, now Sony BMG, I continue writing for Musician and Entertainment Weekly and compiling annual reference books on songs for Gale Research, leading to The Rock Song Index: the 7500 Most Important Songs of the Rock and Roll Era (Schirmer) which is praised by Booklist for its "concise, often excellent commentary" and the Bomp Bookshelf "Pollock is perhaps the most important scholar of American pop music."
In 2002, I compile over 100 interviews into Working Musicians: Defining Moments from the Road, the Studio and the Stage (Harper Collins)."A marathon Phish concert of a book," (Variety). "Marvelous, compulsively readable,"(Paul Williams). In 2005, the second, greatly revised, edition of The Rock Song Index comes out (Routledge) "Music fans will find plenty of satisfaction." (Gale Reviews)
Now I have completed my latest novel, first for adults, The Next Year Effect, a fictionalized memoir (are there any other kind) based on the lives of one of the rock and roll era's most romantic and tragic songwriting couples, but more importantly, a culmination of my experiences in and out of the music business and the writing business for the last thirty years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST FOR NAME THAT TUNE!, October 27, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rock Songs Index (Hardcover)

Almost every song that had anything to do with rock and roll is in this book. It is well organized and easy to use. We use it at parties while listening to rock and roll oldies on the digital cable or dish. It is worth the price!!!!